Temperatures rise in Germany’s euro-fever

In Germany, a close ally of Chancellor Angela Merkel has called into question the independence of the European Central Bank over its newest plan to save the euro.

Volker Kauder said plans for potentially unlimited bond purchasing to help troubled euro zone states had put the ECB ‘on the edge of what is permitted.’

The euro debt crisis has taken on an even stronger resonance than normal this week in Germany.

The country’s constitutional court is due to rule on whether the European Stability Mechanism can go ahead – effectively holding the future of the currency in its hands.

Critics fear that it is German taxpayers who will end up bailing out countries like Greece and Portugal.

One conservative MP Peter Gauweiler has lodged a formal complaint with the court demanding that the ECB reins in its plans for unlimited bond buying.

He said such a policy posed a major risk to Germany’s own national budget.

The ECB’s bond buying plans are contingent on the activation of the European Stability Mechanism.

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